Scottish round-up: Hearts overwhelm Dunfermline

By Roddy Forsyth

3:52PM GMT 25 Feb 2001

DUNFERMLINE ATHLETIC were badly mauled by Heart of Midlothian at Tynecastle where The Edinburgh club's avowed intention of pushing into fourth place in the SPL table was unexpectedly fulfilled with a vengeance. It is no exagegeration to say that the Fifers were fortunate not to be humiliated by a double figure beating as the tactical arrangements which have served them so well in recent weeks collapsed in astonishing fashion.

It took Hearts only five minutes to go ahead when Stephane Adam, restored to the side after injury, scored his first goal for over a year. There was no change to the score until Dunfermline made two first half substitutions. The Fifers' manager, Jimmy Calderwood, removed his captain, Ian Ferguson, along with Andy Tod, replacing them with Bullen and Dijkhuisen and switching to the 2-4-4 formation which usually sparks Dunfermline into lively attacking mode.

On this occasion, however, the ploy backfired and within three minutes Andy Kirk made it 2-0 after Marco Ruitenbeek had blocked an Adam shot which trundled to a halt on the line. The Hearts forward reacted quicker than the Dunfermline deefenders to net with ease. This was the signal for the rout proper to begin.

A long ball from Stephen Pressley sent Colin Cameron through and the Hearts captain chipped the ball over Ruitenbeek into the net. The game was over as a contest but Dunfermline proved unable to limit their embarassment as Steven Boyack bolted clear on the left and cut the ball back to the far post for Adam to volley home from close range.

Whatever remedies were attempted in the Dunfermline dressing room at half time proved ineffectual because within a few seconds of the restart they had fallen 5-0 behind when Justin Skinner made a hash of a clearance and Adam was allowed a shot which Ruitenbeek blocked, only for Cameron to shoot the rebound home. Against expectations and the run of play Skinner and Barry Nicholson combined to allow Jason Dair to beat Antti Niemi from ten yards but the Hearts bandwagon was soon in motion once more and Kirk added to their total by taking a reurn ball from Robert Tomaschek to drive below Ruitenbeek. Tomaschek himself got the final goal after robbing Scott Thomson in defence and shooting from the edge of the box.

The Hearts manager, Craig Levein, said: "Playing three at the back at the start was a bit of a gamble for Dunfermline. It has worked for Jimmy in the past couple of weeks but it was the reason we were able to create so many chances".

Calderwood conceded that his side had been uncharacteristically inept. "We started extremely casually and it was a very weak effort from beginning to end. It's a sore one and we know we let our fans down badly. We never got out of first gear and the mroe we chased the game the further away it got".

The two other 3pm kick-offs in the SPL - Aberdeen's meeting with St Johnstone at Pittodrie was postponed because of snow - were uneventful by comparison with events at Tynecastle. Kilmarnock and Dundee United fought out a dour goalless draw at Rugby Park where the Kilmarnock manager, Bobby Williamson declared that the spectators had not been cheated.

"Both teams worked very hard and you couldn't fault any of the players for effort but that is sometimes what you get when you have two teams competing for every ball".

At Love Street, St Mirren were edged out of a share of the points with Motherwell when Derek Townsley scored the only goal of the game for the Fir Park side with quarter of an hour remaining. St Mirren slipped behind Dundee united to go to the bottom of the table on goal difference and their manager, Tom Hendrie, was downcast by the manner of defeat and said: "We lack firepower and what happens is that we create more chances than the other side but don't put them away. The other team makes fewer openings but they usually manage to make something from them".